Disney Taps Antin for Music-Driven Project

Walt Disney Pictures has set Steven Antin to write and direct an untitled music-driven project that Scott Sanders will produce under his first-look deal at the studio, reports Variety.

A bigscreen newcomer, Sanders is well known in stage and music circles. He most recently developed and was lead producer on hit musical “The Color Purple” and collaborated with Queen Latifah in a music partnership to record and produce Grammy-nominated disc “The Dana Owens Album.”

Antin said the title and plot of the musical were being kept under wraps at the request of Disney.

“It’s a music-driven movie set in a high school, geared toward a Disney audience,” he said. Antin has written much of the screenplay, and the project becomes a candidate, along with the Screen Gems musical Burlesque, to be the film he directs in the fall.

“It is neck and neck right now, as ‘Burlesque’ just got a rewrite from Diablo Cody and the script is really strong,” said Antin, who wrote the original draft of Burlesque.